174 
mere teaching, may be undertaken (such a one 
as is found at universities, de facto) cannot be 
carried on properly and successfully by less 
than three persons. ‘The highest officer must 
be the responsible director, —a man of superior 
ability, extensive attainments, and prolonged 
experience: one, in short, who has mastered 
his department of science, knows its possibili- 
ties and deficiencies, and is therefore capable 
of judging what work is most feasible and in- 
structive for students, and what problems are 
best adapted for investigation. It is sheer 
waste fora man of such high capacity to sacri- 
fice his whole time to the arrangement of appa- 
ratus, or the preparation of experiments for his 
lectures or his students : therefore it is desirable, 
we prefer to say indispensable, that he should 
have an assistant, preferably a young devotee 
of science, who will be fitted by his experience 
as an assistant to ultimately become himself 
director of a similar laboratory. ‘The third per- 
son is the laboratory keeper (diener), who 
needs must be a man of some mechanical skill, 
so that the precious instruments may be safely 
intrusted to his care. He should be something 
more than a servant, and less than an assistant. 
A laboratory without this working-force can- 
not do much for the promotion of science, al- 
though even more modest ones may be valuable 
forsimple instruction. A first-class laboratory, 
and in Germany are many such, has always a 
larger number of officers. ‘There are few per- 
sons among us who appreciate the magnitude 
of a scientific laboratory: were it otherwise, 
there would not be so many petty substitutes 
for them. 
Existing laboratories fulfil two functions, — 
giving education to students, and opportunity 
to investigators. The multiplication and en- 
largement of laboratories depend chiefly upon 
the growing recognition of the truth that first- 
hand knowledge is the only real knowledge. 
The student must see, and not rest satisfied 
with being told. ‘Translated into a pedagogic 
law, it reads, ‘ To teach science, have a labo- 
ratory ; to learn a science, go to a laboratory.’ 
He who has never learned to appreciate a lab- 
oratory in its highest sense does not know 
even the meaning of ‘I know.’ We do not 
consider those liberally educated who have 
never had even a single thorough course of 
laboratory training. It is the laboratory which 
gives strength to the movement in favor of 
scientific education, for it opens to all the road 
to real living knowledge ; while books by them- 
selves lead off to the by-ways of what other 
men thought they knew at the time they wrote. 
Life and death are not more different than 
SCIENCE. 
[Vou. ILI., No. 64, 
are, in their ways, real and book knowledge — 
of nature. A book, at best, is but a useful 
adjunct in science. 
To the investigator the laboratory is, or 
ought to be, all in all, providing him with 
every thing wherewith to experiment and ob- 
serve. Not only should there be on hand all 
the paraphernalia of research, but it must also 
be possible to purchase or construct the new 
apparatus which may be devised to meet the 
new requirements. Yet in no respect, perhaps, 
do laboratories maintain a more efficient utility 
than in fostering technique, by the develop- 
ment of new methods, and by gathering from 
all sources complete information concerning 
the available processes and means of work. 
Only the daily laborer at science can ade- 
quately value the knowledge of methods which 
is concentrated in every well-managed labora- 
tory. In places where these requirements are 
fulfilled, discovery makes rapid progress ; and 
their existence explains the present immense 
rapidity of scientific progress. 
What a contrast between the magnificent 
opportunities we enjoy to-day and the meagre 
possibilities of fifty years ago! The change 
has been rendered possible by the establish- 
ment of well-fitted laboratories for the promo- 
tion of science. 
TESTS OF ELECTRIC-LIGHT SYSTEMS 
AT THE CINCINNATI EXPOSITION. 
Tue commissioners of the eleventh indus- 
trial exposition held in Cincinnati in September 
and October, 1883, determined to undertake 
a series of tests of the efficiency of electrical 
lighting systems, and so advertised in their 
circulars, which were widely distributed. Spe- 
cial premiums were offered for the best system 
of arc-lighting, the best system of incandes- 
cent lighting, the best dynamo machine for arc 
and incandescent lighting respectively, and for 
the best lamp in each system. 
A jury was appointed by the commissioners, 
consisting of T. C. Mendenhall, chairman, 
H. T. Eddy, Thomas French, jun., and Walter 
Laidlaw. The jury was instructed to make 
such tests and measurements as seemed de- 
sirable and were possible under the circum- 
stances, and which would aid in arriving at a 
verdict upon the relative merits of the different 
exhibits. 
The opening of the exposition took place on — 
The jury | 
Sept. 5, and the close on Oct. 6. 
was requested to make its report of the awards — 
one week before the close of the exposition. 
In response to the proposal of the commis- 
: 
